The plus-que-parfait is often used when telling stories and anecdotes to provide background information on situations that occurred prior to the main action of the story. We use it to talk about an action or situation that took place before another past action.
(He had just had lunch when I arrived.Le plus-que-parfait corresponds to the past perfect tense in English. Il venait de déjeuner quand je suis arrivée.
Note that Recent past constructions, when used in the imperfect, have the meaning of a pluperfect: See Si constructions for more information. (I would not have come if I had known he was ill.) Je ne serais pas venue si j’avais su qu’il était malade. The plus-que-parfait is also commonly used in si clauses, with the past conditional: Sometimes the action the plus-que-parfait precedes will not be explicit, but will be implied in the sentence:Įlle avait déjà pensé à cela. (The children ate all the cookies that their father had bought.) Les enfants ont mangé tous les gâteaux que leur père avait achetés. (When I got home, I had already heard the bad news.) Quand je suis rentré, j’avais déjà appris la mauvaise nouvelle. Frequently its use will be signaled by adverbs (such as déjà) which can heighten the sense of opposition between actions: The plus-que-parfait is used when the speaker needs to position one action with respect to another. In both sentences certain actions precede others however, only the second sentence seeks to emphasize the precedence of one action. (The alarm rang, I got up, and I had breakfast.) Compare these two sentences:ġ) Le réveil a sonné, je me suis levé, et j’ai pris mon déjeuner. However, the plus-que-parfait is not always used when one action precedes another for example, a list of actions in chronological order may well be put in the passé composé alone. The term “ plus-que-parfait” suggests “more in the past than the perfect.” The tense is used to indicate actions which took place before another action in the past, which is usually (though not always) described in the perfect ( passé composé).
(See Past participle agreement for rules on agreement.) Use (I bought the book that Corinne had recommended to me.) J’ai acheté le roman que Corinne m’avait recommandé. (She had already left when Philippe arrived.)
(He had always wanted to travel in Africa.)Įlle était déjà partie quand Philippe est arrivé. Il avait toujours voulu voyager en Afrique. The plus-que-parfait is a compound tense formed with the imperfect tense of the auxiliary ( avoir or être, see Auxiliaries) and the past participle: Back to INDEX Pluperfect (plus-que-parfait) Formation
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